265
In support of their contention, the cham-
pions of renunciation pointed out that a mere statement
of the fact that ’* I am Brahman ** is not tantamount
to the realization of Brahman, that Brahman can be
realized only through long and arduous discipline of
both body and mmd, in peaceful solitude , that, in
the case of people immersed day in and day out in
the belief that “ I am the body ” it is by no means
easy to dispel the perverse notion, by merely repeating
occasionally, “ I am Brahman ” and that, therefore,
the stage of sanyasa wherein there is complete
renunciation of desire and total avoidance of excite-
ment, is indispensable to all true seekers of Brahman.
To the enlightened who abide in Bralmtan, sanyasa
is a matter of course. The truth is, they have already
become Brahman.
Abidance in Brahman is the unbroken flow of
mental moulds informed by Brahman. When the
mind is engaged in a state of samadhi, how can the
concept of body and other objects extraneous to the
Atman arise in it ? Concept of the Atman and concept
of the non-Atman cannot exist in the mind at the
same moment. How can there be activities connected
with the body, etc., in the absence of a strong attachment
to such objects ? As the enlightened ones abiding in
Jnana are beyond the reach of activities, sanyasa
comes to them quite spontaneously. The advocates
of sanyasa, therefore, argue that during the stage of
preparatory practice, sanyasa in the form of the
renunciation of action is indispensable ; in the stage of
attainment it becomes natural ; that Karma and Jnana
cannot therefore exist in the same person at the same
time ; that the Karma of Janaka, Vidura, etc., was
merely the reflection of it and that only worldlings
obsessed with the idea of sense enjoyment oppose the
idea of sanyasa.
Practical-minded men have often asked in the past
and still continue to ask. “ Of what use to this world
full of action, sustained by action and propelled by
action, are the swiyasins who have renounced the
world and its activities to live immersed in samadlii
and bhajan 1 To this question, the sanyasins’ answer
is quite simple. Their very state of non-action is in
itself a mighty blessing to the world. More than all
the learned disquisitions of erudite scholars, more
than all their profound treatises, the Nirvikalpa
Samadlii of a sanyasin touches the heart of humanity
and elevates it to a higher plane. Their desireless
non-action does greater good to the world than the
swiftest and the most frantic activities of the revolu-
tionaries. What is more, sanyasa is mightier than
armies and is boundless as the sea.
292
However, only the sage who has
reahzed God can distinguish his bhss as truly satvik
and divine Only he can identify his concentration
with the divine trance great yogis have claimed to have
achieved Satvik joy is something that can be attained
only through long and arduous discipline. At Gomu-
kha one reaches it without effort.
It is my thirst for
the nectar of tranquillity that drives me to wrestle
with the difficulties of travel in these inaccessible
fastnesses and reach that spot every year. It is this
tranquillity, this bliss that adepts seek in the bustle of
cities through long processes of meditative practice
and the consequent dwindhng of the innate tendencies
of the mind Tranquilhty is the innate nature of all,
I at IS a self-existent reality Therefore there need be
no striving to produce it Where is the need for
effort to bring into being what IS ? Though it is, m
Ignorance, referred to as non-existent, though tranquil-
hty IS own inborn nature, being wrapped up by agita-
tion, It is not experienced Abolish this agitation and
tranquillity reveals itself Effort, then, is needed not
to generate tranquillity but to bamsh agitation The
mass of light, the Sun’s disc, is concealed by clouds
The clouds only need move away and immediately
the solar disc which appeared to be non-existent,
reveals itself Here there is no question of producing
the solar disc and making it shine In the same way,
with the cessation of agitation tranquilhty nses (hke
the Sun) But what is the nature of this agitation 9
It IS nothing but the transmigratory existence
consisting of agency, relation and act or of name,
form and act How 7 The real nature of tranquilhty
IS experienced in dreamless slumber even by morons
Later there is waking from that state, that is to say
“ I, I ” asserts itself for the first time as agency Then
desire and so forth begin to operate Next, the sense
organs hke the eye, the ear, etc , awake and operate
m regard to their objects Together with that, crop
up attitudes, affirmative or negative, and concepts
such as happiness, unhappiness, etc It is the conglo-
meration of the egoistic sense and so forth and their
activities, thus engendered, that is known widely as
distraction and that is agitation This transmigratory
existence is nothing but the summation of these discrete
masses and their operations The physical orgamsm,
transmigratory existence, name, form, distraction,
pain, agitation — these are but the synonyms denoting
one and the same thmg Even so, tranquilhty, truth,
beauty, bliss, self, God, Brahman — these are but
different names of one and the same Thmg The
source of this agitation or intranqmlhty is well-known
to be the inner organ which assumes such form as
V‘ I ”, “ this ”, “knower”, “known" In brief, agita-
tion is the various fabrications of the inner organ
and tranquilhty is their cessation
Let there be a duahty, once the fabrications of the
mind have been suppressed or let there not be, what
IS certain is, that is the peerless state of tranquillity
Let a tigress roar terribly in front of a sage merged
m profound meditation or let a hourt sing sweetly
before him , his state of tranqmlhty is unaffected
by them all, because the mmd that grasps does not
operate in regard to its objects, but remains concen-
trated and so tranquil Therefore, though there are
llexternal objects they are as good as non-existent and
llthus no longer promote agitation Again, that is
the reason why certam teachers have laid it down as
a rule that by liquidating not the world created by
God, but the world created by man, that is, by under-
mining the fabncations of the mmd of man, certain
tranquillity is attained The conclusion of all spiritual
sciences and of all great sages is that agitation or
transmigratory existence is the summation of all
possible relations between subject and object , while
liberation or tranquillity is the cessation of such
summations In the restncted state of the mind the
veil, namely, the objective complex, disappears and
then, like the sun with the disappearance of the clouds.
the supreme truth of tranquilhty shines forth vividly
Though this ultimate truth has been indicated m
manifold ways by various philosophers, there is no
doubt about its umty A real difference cannot
result from difference of labels or processes of thought
What has been estabhshed thus far is that high souled
sages attain that unsurpassed tranquillity which is
untainted by association with a variety of names and
forms They do so by attaining the stage of the
restricted mmd after, through disciplme, discardmg
the distractions of the mmd and sense organs and
body Now rises the question what the state of the
sages IS when the body, senses and the mind function
Is theirs a plight of wretchedness full of agitation,
such as that of the ignorant ? Never In the midst
of agitation they experience, without a break, internal
tranquilhty Since the principle of tranquilhty always
shmes forth in their minds, never is tranquillity hidden
from them How can there be darkness in light ’
jHow can there be agitations m tranquilhty "> Don’t
ask, how bhss can dwell in pain When a man stands
waist deep in the cool water of a deep pond m summer
when all around it is scorching heat, simultaneously
half his body feels the heat while the other half coolness
Seetha dwelling under the asoka tree in Lanka, sur-
rounded by ogresses, is said to have, at once, experi-
enced the torments of hell and consequent upon her
constant recollection of her lord, the qmntessence of
bhss Even so, the sages also may find unavoidable
I the activities of the sense organs and the mmd, impelled
by past actions as well as the consequent sensations
of pain and pleasure Even m the midst of such deep
distraction the great souls who have firmly realized
the essence of tranquillity vnll continue to expenence
It Without a moment’s break for, such tranqmlhty
shmes m their mmd When we say the supreme truth
jmamfests itself or tranqmlhty is expenenced we mean
Jthe same thing. Famous is the utterance of the
teacher (Sankara) q- lassie fharil’
which means “ Not for half a moment do the sages
remain without the experience of Brahman ”
In other words, their mmd takes on the form of
Brahman which leaves them not even for the briefest
midst of external activities the mmd, no doubt, assumes
from moment to moment, the forms of objects Never-
theless, what IS extremely difficult for an ordinary
type of knower is achieved by eminent sages, namely,
to keep unaffected the mental grasp of the truth of
Brahman Just as the body-bound souls never miss
the experience of the body even in the midst of the
uttermost distractions, so the shining forth of Brahman
IS experienced without any difficulty by the knowers
of Brahman who delight in Brahman and who are
non-different from Brahman The fact is, it is easier
llfor them to do so. It becomes their very nature
For such sages who are hardly less than God Hunself,
and who habitually find themselves on (he summit
of such expenence, there is concentration of mind
both when the mind is restricted and when it operates
towards objects.
Though, thus, both the states of
concentration and distraction are alike to them, it is
assumed, from the point of view of duality, that in
one state, there is the apprehension of objects while,
in the other, there is none of it. Let us, however,
leave it at that and come back to our mam theme
It is not surprising if other sadhus wonder at
or even envy my good fortune m sojourning at Gomu-
kha every year, enjoying the super mundane pleasure
arising out of the beauty of the snow and through it
the absolute bliss, originating in the beauty of the
soul
302
No fear however great, no sorrow however
mighty, can upset the everlasting peace of one who
has realized Brahman. Those who have seen God
see Him everywhere and at all times. The seer is
himself God. Then why should he fear himself 7
How could he be affected by sorrow ? There is
nothing strange if we, whose minds were continuously
occupied with the thought of God and who saw,
beyond all doubt, that all movable and immovable
beings are but so many forms of God, were not frigh-
tened by the objects that terrify the ignorant who
identify themselves with their bodies. In short, we
were not distracted by the terrors and anxieties which
haunt the minds of common people whose love of
the body and considerations of personal safety set
their imagination feverishly busy.
At no time did we
, experience there anything but cheerfulness. There
[may be people who wonder how we were able to
preserve fearlessness and cheerfulness in the midst
of terrors. To them there is this brief reply ; Only a
bird that flies through the air, knows the nature of
I iflight ; similarly, only a sanyasin who travels in the
world can know nothing about the secrets of the
inner world. Among wisemen there is a well-known
saying, “ Only the knower knows the knower
There may still be persons who ask, “ what is
the meaning of saying that those who have obtained
the vision of God see him always and everywhere ?
What is God’s shape ? What is the form of His
vision ? ” It is impossible to answer such questions
at onee with words. How can one describe the true
form of God in words and make others understand
It ? Even those who have actually seen It fail to
describe It completely. Descriptions, however de-
tailed or extensive, cannot hope to touch all Its aspects.
The way to know It, is by actual experience and there
is no other way. The srtiifs and learned men have
described it in a thousand ways— as the Omniscient,
the Omnipotent, the Supreme Limit of A/swarya,
the Creator-preserver-destroyer, the shoreless, honey-
like, Ocean of Sweetness, the Light that renders
billions of suns dark by comparison, the Inner Being
that controls all beings movable and immovable, the
Embodiment of Truth-Knowledge-Bliss, the One All-
pervading like space. One without sound, touch or
form — so on and so forth. Indeed, we may admit
that all these descriptions are descriptions of the
Supreme Soul and to some extent help to convey the
notion of what It is, but all these fall far short of
giving men a complete idea ; for It is far above all
description. We cannot circumscribe It with words.
Like a fruit that floats on the surface of water, the
Paramalma rises above tlie floods of eloquence.
Howsoever high the water rises, the fruit still floats
lover it. Similarly, the supreme soul keeps on rising
'above the swelling words ; It is never submerged.
The vision of an indescribable thing
must necessarily be indescribable. What is the instru-
ment with which one may perceive the Supreme Soul
With our eye we perceive pots, etc With the mind
we perceive desn-e, anger, etc But with neither,
shall we perceive It which is beyond name and form.
IHhe ancient rishis who had reahzed Truth descnbe
l|lt as beyond words and mind Like God, the vision
of God too is beyond words When the mmd assumes
the form of a pot, it becomes the perception of the
pot. Like that, when the mind, rising above name
and form, assumes the state of Brahman it is called
the perception of Brahman, by the Vedantins. But
Brahman has no form, ft is formless. Who can
perceive the formless Brahman ? How can the limited
mind comprehend the formless and u nlimi ted Brah-
man ? It may be argued that when the mind is free
from all its functions of imagination, it intuits Brahman,
pure, one without a second, which shines forth in its
own splendour without a veil ; then it is futile to
maintain that there is a perceiver and a perception of
Brahman. It will then follow that the intuition of
Brahman has nothing in common with phenomenal
.perceptions of the objective world, that, in fact, the
perception of Brahman is the Ijasic experience of the
non-objective. Such ate the conclusions of Vedanta.
Even as God is. His perception also is surpassingly
marvellous and transcendent. Hence it is impossible
to grasp either from mere descriptions thereof. On
ithe other hand, both of them have to be immediately
intuited. That is the upshot of this context.
it would be difficult, if
not impossible, to practise Nis/ikaiiia Karma or carry
on Dhyana or Samadhi in a strict, scientific way.
As is well-known, the repetition of holy names is the
easiest step in a life of devotion. Any worldling,
any sinner, can cry out “ O Siva ! 0 Krishna 1 ! ”
For people engaged in the relentless pursuit of worldly
pleasures it is -verily impossible to shed all desires or
set their minds on God or even make them meditative.
So, in this Age, pursuit of Bhakti h the easiest as well
as the most important means to reach the goal. There
can be no difference of opinion on this point. In the
early stages, repetition of holy names and prayer, the
singing of hymns and listening to religious discourses
help the love of God to sprout up and as it grows
and flourishes, the uncontrollable craving for sensual
pleasures is tamed, and men gradually become intros-
pective. Their minds begin to flow continuously
towards the Lord, and experience pleasure in doing so.
If the jmnis find their joy in meditating upon formless
Brahman, the Bliaktas revel in the contemplation of the
Divine form. Of course there-are not two gods, one
with form and another without it. God is one and
so a Bliakla who loves the Divine form intensely to
the exclusion of everything else, has nothing more to
gain. Let no one be under the illusion that the direct
perception of Parabrahma who has no form and
no attributes, alone leads to salvation, that the Bliakla
■ has not attained it, that he is yet to achieve it and that
until he does so, the purpose of his life remains un-
fulfilled. If God has such a form without attributes —
a form whose perception alone will lead to salvation —
will not He disclose it to His true devotee one
day or other and lead him on to the supreme goal ?
If he is a bhakla let
him concentrate his mind upon the form of the Lord ;
if he is a jnani let him try to acquire steadfast knowledge
of the formless, through earnest study and discipline.
The supreme, the ultimate, goal of Bbakti and Jmna
is the same. There is no doubt it is Nirvana through
, the realization of Brahman. Certainly, those people
who move slowly, step by step, towards the goal
uttering the holy names of God in full faith, are
immensely more fortunate than the unqualified persons
who tumble down headlong into perdition during
their attempts to scale the difficult and dangerous
heights of Bralmia-Jnam. The path of Bhafcti is the
royal toad to the presence of God. It is open to all
types of people, whether learned or ignorant. It is
also the easiest to follow. That is why the great seers
of God, both inside and outside the Vedic pale, have
recommended it whole-heartedly as the noblest route
to the great goal, popularised it among the people
tortured by the threefold sufferings of life. If there
is God, there is no doubt. He must be omniscient,
as well as omnipotent. He can assume any form in
which his devotee worships Him and bless him, granting
him a vision in that particular form. There is nothing
illogical or unscientific in the idea. Nor is it contrary
to experience.
To abandon all love of worldly
pleasures and immerse one’s -mind completely in the
love of God, can be the consummation only of great
punya.
Whatever be the form of God, only a mind
which has freed itself totally from worldly entangle-
ments, can be filled with Divine love. For people
whose vasanas (inborn dispositions) have been washed
away by the flood of Divine love, the atmitic knowledge
cannot be far, if at all they want it. Beh'eve firmly
in the existence of God — believe that He is — believe
that He is the Father of the Universe who preserves
everything— then, it does not matter in what form you
' worship Him, on what pedestal, or in what world you
place Him ; then, there is no doubt, the Omniscient
I ,One, immanent in everything and everywhere, will
I [bestow His grace upon you. When a Bhakla, filled
with the longing to see his Beloved, cries out as if his
heart would break, “ My Lord, My Lord, OParcmwtma,
when shall I behold Thy lovely form with these eyes
of mine 7 ” only people who have tasted the Divine
sweetness of that intense love, can understand it.
Seeing that Bliakii and Jiwna are equally good, wise
ones should never waste their precious time arguing
,, excitedly about the superiority of the one or the other,
llwhat vdse men. ought to do is to adopt one of these
I'aaccording to their qualifications and inclinations,
[pursue it steadily, see God and thus fulfil the purpose
of this invaluable human birth.
Those who possess such love of God, love such
solitary places as Gomukha, whichever proclaim the
glory of the Lord. Parted from her lover, his beloved
sits in the corner of her lonely chamber where every-
thing reminds her of him, thinking of him in secret.
To her even the sound of a single foot-step seems
intolerable. She hates every distraction which disturbs
the contemplation of her lord. Even so, the bhakla
hates all interruptions to his prayers, and all distrac-
tions which break up his continuous contemplation of
God whom he loves most intensely. For such bhaktas,
can there be a place more congenial than the solitary,
peaceful Gomukha? There is nothing here which
docs not help the enjoyment of contemplation and
prayer. What is here to hinder it ? This solitary
place is. extremely suitable to people who see God,
who love God or who meditate upon God, for they
require no external assistance in their activities, but
a cultured mind. Solitude serves them best to perfect
their discipline. This Gomukha region is unrivalled
not only in its perpetual solitude but also its clear,
pure, spiritual atmosphere and so it aids the bhakla
as well as the jimni to reach easily the state of samadin
which is the culmination of jnaiia, bhakti and dhyana.
But, for the karma yogi who is trying to perform his
duties as acts of devotion, without any desire for
reward, this place is not suited so well. He can
bathe here devoutly, gain God’s grace and thereby
destroy sins and acquire mental purity. He can
reinforce his faith in God by observing the glory of
the Creator which manifests itself everywhere in this
Divine land, but unlike the other three types of yogis
he cannot afford to stay on in this region and at the,
same time carry on his duties as a karma yogi for a
karma yogi has to depend necessarily upon external
objects for his activities.
The dualism of action, cause and etfect is itself
Samsara. Freedom from it is freedom from Sanmra.
If action is Samsara, non-action is the cessation of
Samsara. So even the uneducated can easily perceive
that the states of waking and dreaming which involve
action, cause and effect, are Samsara whereas the
state of deep slumber (sushupU) is the cessation of
Saiimra. If a man, out of his love for action (even
if he has no desire for the fruit thereoO does not
long for the everlasting peace of non-action in this
life itself, out of that love, may wish for a fresh lease
of life after die fall of the present body. How can
one suppose that a seeker after Truth, who knows
that this worldly hfe of birth, disabhng old age and
death is misery, that the escape from it is Moksha
and that Moksha is the same as Brahnan (which is
homogeneous at all times, immovable and eternally
peaceful) and who having known It, sticks resolutely
to It, or endeavours to stick to It, will find delight in
the continuance of the duahstic view and the tension
of conflicting action resulting from it, while fearing
the eternal peace of non-action ’ If what he prefers
is Karma, which consists in the activities of the mind
and the senses, can he really long for Moksha which
means the cessation of all action ? Is it not more
probable that he would prefer entering new bodies
for further action ? If he does not desire for a state
unfettered by the body, why should he undertake the
Herculean labours requited for the acquisition of
the Knowledge of Truth, for the destrucUon of inborn
tendencies and the annihilation of Karma ’> That
means, a region of non-action like Gomukha, though
a source of terror to people of action, becomes a dear
refuge to lovers of supreme peace, whose vasanas
have been uprooted and whose minds have attained
quiescence, even like Brahman Itself If some who
had attained the state of Brahman (that_state_oLnon-
action) had yet laboured m the cause of umversal
happiness, itisnotfor any one to approve or disapprove
of it Who can overcome one’s own nature ? What
I mean is only this even a jnam will have to experience
pleasures and pains according to the measure of his
^engagement inaction , the expenence of such pleasures
and pams is itself Samsara , and that the state of
supreme peace, the state of Moksha, is altogether
untouched by Samsara
The knowledge of
Brahman is the immediate perception of non-difference
between Brahman on the one hand and oneself and
the universe on the other. An uninterrupted revelling
in this non-dual Brahman realized as the quintessence
,of the world is the supreme goal of life. What has
been attempted in this book is to present in an easily
,;jintelligible manner, the truth of the identity between
. ijiva and Brahman. This timeless truth, viz,, the
non-duality (of reality) has been set forth here along
witli the means and the auxiliaries that promote the
e-xperience of this truth.
He concedes, also, that for certain
people the very thought of the soul is impossible
until they have totally abandoned all distracting
activities That is all true But, m spite of all this,
the writer of this book does not believe that house-
holders and other Asramilcs are disqualified to lead a
spiritual life or that, for people m other Asrams it is
impossible to meditate upon the Soul I have expressed
this opinion elsewhere, but I am repeating it here to
stress that view over again In the midst of action,
think of the Soul Surrounded by wife, children and
grandchildren, still think of the Paramanm with
devout lose Think, constantly, of the power that
activates your hands, legs, etc Always use them to
Ido things good and desirable Allow not yourself
to be tempted by the intoxicating wine On the
contrary, drink, drink your fill of the Nectar of Life
for ever more and find everlasting BLISS '
Om Santi ' Santi ' ' Santi ' '
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